Contemplations

A KING’S RANSOM  Heaven is a holy place;  Sinners are banned from there.  Only one could pay the price for our sins,  Though the price was very unfair.  Jesus Christ, both God and man,  Came to Earth to make a way.  He was scorned, abused and tempted,  But sinless He would stay.  Jesus knew what His future held,  Humiliation and great pain,  To die was His reason for coming to Earth;  Love from us was His only gain.  When that day had finally come,  And prophecies were fulfilled,  Jesus paid a King’s ransom,  When on the cross He was killed.  Heaven’s gates are now open,  To those who do God’s will,  Whose hearts are bonded to His,  And through trials love Him still.  Becky Wall

MOODY MUSIC   What is your favorite kind of music? Rock and roll, classical, jazz, country, head-banging music? Have you ever noticed that your music either reflects your mood or changes your mood? If you are excited, you want fast, happy, exciting music. If you are hyper inside, you want head-banging music. If you need peace and quiet, you prefer softer music. If your heart is breaking, you may want to listen to country music (like Achy Breaky Heart). Do you include Christian music as one of your choices? I did not grow up listening to Christian music on the radio. I was willing to sing it at church or with the family around the piano, but I just couldn't seem to get into it when I heard it on the radio. I preferred rock and roll. I'm a product of the '60's. Rock and roll is fast paced and worldly, which reflected my former life. It's not that I was a bad person. I was a regular church goer, but I didn't give God much thought outside of the church. I was

BE PREPARED, BE READY  I Peter 3:15 - Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. Romans 14:19 - Do what leads to peace and mutual edification. Eph. 4:11-13 - It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. I Peter 1:13 - Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. Luke 1:17 - And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous--to make ready a peopl

INFINITE, UNBROKEN, POWERFUL LOVE How fitting that Valentine's Day, the day love is shown in a special way, falls between Christmas and Easter, as if to bridge the crib and the cross together. For God loved us so much that he sent His one and only Son to begin life in the womb of a virgin, live a life of hardship and rejection while showing only love, then dying as a result of being beaten, then nailed to a cross. No man has ever shown greater love than this. Just how big is God's love? According to scripture, it fills the earth, and is as high as the heavens are above the earth. There is no telescope powerful enough to see past that point. Each more powerful telescope reveals more "heavens" past the ones in which scientists were aware. Satellites traveling at great speeds past vast distances are as if they had never left the ground when compared to the vastness of the heavens. God's love is infinite. God's love is as far as the East is from th

AN UNEXPECTED INHERITANCE DURING THE DEPRESSION There were nine  children on Mom's side of the family, the Uhls side:  Kendall,  Wendall, Virginia, Bernice, Thomas, Dean, Eva Lee, Geraldine and James, not necessarily in that order. The Uhls lived poor during the first part of The Great Depression. Their clothes were made from feed sacks and they had little to eat. Most of the other citizens in America suffered all the way through The Depression, but because of a tragedy, Mom’s family didn't have to live poor. By the way, Mom was Eva Lee. Grandma Uhls had a brother, Theodore Humphrey, who worked for the Associated Press in Chicago. His wife was an opera singer. She died and Theodore became depressed. When the stock market crashed, that was as much as Theodore could take so he committed suicide by jumping out of the window at work.  He and his wife had no children so he bequeathed a large portion of his savings to my grandma. It was enough of a nest egg that t